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Saturday, April 30, 2011

For my husband's birthday last month, Aubrey and I surprised him by visiting him at work with a dozen cupcakes to share with his office. I wanted to do something different and I was inspired by a new drink that my sister and her husband introduced us to - a cocktail of orange Fanta and whipped vodka. The cupcakes were a little more acceptable for the office, although I'm sure the vodka would have been appreciated!

The recipe is a combination of a few different sources - I adapted the recipe on I Heart Cuppycakes who adapted the recipe from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes and Dulcedo. The cake is really moist and don't skip the orange zest because it adds so much flavor and I love seeing the little bits of zest in the cake. The marshmallow cream is a great addition to these cupcakes, it really gives it the creamsicle flavor instead of just an orange cupcake.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line muffin pans with paper liners. (This made 16 cupcakes for me.)

Combine butter, olive oil and sugar and mix on medium high speed about three minutes until light and fluffy. Add vanilla and eggs and mix about one more minute until well incorporated. Stir in orange zest. In a separate bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Separately combine heavy cream and orange juice. Add 1/3 of the flour mixture, followed by 1/2 of the cream mixture and repeat, finishing with the flour. Mix until just incorporated after each addition.

Scoop batter into prepared liners, filling about 2/3 of the way full. Bake about twenty minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pans about five minutes and then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

Marshmallow Cream Filling:

7 oz marshmallow fluff

1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

Cut butter into small pieces and add to fluff in a mixing bowl. Beat on medium speed until smooth and creamy. Cut a small cone shape into the top of each cupcake and spoon marshmallow cream into wells allowing the cream to puddle on top of the cupcake slightly. (Don't add too much, when you add the buttercream, it will cause the cream to move out toward the edges of the cupcakes.)

Orange Buttercream:

1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

1/8 - 1/4 cup orange juice, freshly squeezed

Zest of 1 orange

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

4 cups powdered sugar

Beat butter on medium speed until light and fluffy, about three minutes. Add orange juice, zest, and vanilla and mix until well combined. Add powdered sugar, one cup at a time, mixing until incorporated to reach desired consistency. Whip on medium high speed about two minutes until smooth and creamy. Transfer to a piping bag fitted with desired tip and pipe onto cupcakes.

54 comments:

Thank you for this recipe! I have a creamsicle cake recipe, but it uses a boxed mix and jello mix. Its delicious, but I really prefer to not use mixes. I will definetly be giving this a try this summer :)

@Penni - Thanks - hope you like them. I get cupcake liners from a lot of places, I pick them up whenever I see cute ones but I buy a lot of them at Hobby Lobby/Michaels or online through the Cupcake Shoppe or Bake It Pretty.

I tried these out tonight. The cake itself was absolutely perfect - moist and zingy. The marshmallow filling and the frosting, though, were so cloyingly sweet I couldn't eat more than one bite of a complete cupcake.

Kerry it is 2 tablespoons and it is a lot but that's what hives the cupcakes the creamsicle Flavor. Not using as much shouldn't mess you up too much but it will cut back on some of the flavor, I'm not sure if they will be short on liquid ingredients enough to notice it. I hope they turn out for you.

What a unique cupcake. They look and sound delicious. This is my first visit toyour blog, so I took some time to browse through your earlier posts. I'm so glad I did that. I really like the recipes you share with your readers. I enjoyed the time I spent here and I definitely be back. I hope you have a great day. Blessings...Mary

I have now made these AMAZING cupcakes twice, and fowarded your blog to others who wanted the recipe. I made orange cupcake wrappers on my Silhouette and tinted the orange icing to match the color exactly. Wish I could show a picture! Thank you for creating and sharing.

@Becca - I bought mine but I would think you could make it as well. I actually bought my bottle while on a trip in California, but I've also seen it at stores like Williams-Sonoma. You can also order it online.

Just made this recipe for my daughter's birthday!! Doubled the recipe and used 10" cake pans instead of cupcake pans. Added some shortening to the orange buttercream to cut back the sweetness. It was delicious!!! I carved out a shallow well on both the top and bottom layers for the marshmallow filling, then iced the cake with the buttercream. Everyone loved it!! I will most definitely make this again!

Hmm, my cupcakes were not like what I am finding in the comments here. My cupcakes were dense, grainy, unfavorable, and not at all sweet - this is just the cake itself. I decided not to waste the time or ingredients on the rest of it. If the cake itself was so bad, I wasn't going to continue, because if it takes the filling and icing to compensate for the cake then the cupcake is not a good cupcake. I followed the directions to a T and the ingredients I used were top notch. It could be the baker, but I have won several awards for my baking skill, but I won't rule anything out.

I actually enjoyed the cupcake part itself, because the icing was so sweet that it made up for the lack of sweetness in the cake. It was however fairly dense. My problem was that the marshmallow filling literally tasted like sweet butter. To anyone making this-- seriously cut down on the butter in this filling. Possibly do more than 7oz. Of marshmallow and less butter. It made me want to gag! I was also disappointed in the icing. It tasted okay but was so sweet! And nothing like the color in the picture. There had to have been some food coloring in that. It wasn't orange at all actually. Cream with the shavings is all.

OMG these might possibly be the BEST cupcakes I have EVER had!!! My mom would not stop praising me and my brother would not stop eating the batter. I didn't have a density problem, although I did add yogurt to the heavy cream. And if that doesn't work substitute 1/4 of granulated sugar for brown sugar. Just some tips I have picked up ;). Anyhow I found the frosting amazingly delicious but unnecessary because the filling was sweet enough. Also, I split the orange zest between the frosting and batter (which was super thick). AND, you HAVE to add food coloring for an orangey color.